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Wife of ex-Detroit mayor loses job, lease on Texas home

DETROIT — With her husband behind bars, Detroit's former first lady, Carlita Kilpatrick, has fallen on hard times in Texas, losing her job and her lease on the family's extravagant home in posh Grand Prairie.

According to neighbors, the Kilpatricks' furniture and numerous household belongings were out on the curb on trash pickup day July 15, three days before the family officially moved out of the five-bedroom home they rented for $2,600 a month. According to Dallas real estate agent Will Butler, Carlita Kilpatrick was not evicted, but the owner of the house chose not to renew her lease. Butler did not elaborate, stating only that the house is now on the market to be leased again, this time for $2,799 a month.

It is not known where the Kilpatricks moved, but sources familiar with Carlita Kilpatrick's plight said that the family's church, The Potter's House in Dallas, founded by Bishop T.D. Jakes, is helping them out. Officials with the Potter's House did not return calls or e-mails for comment.

Neighbors said the Kilpatricks left a lot behind.

"There was a lot of furniture. It was a lot of stuff there ... the kind of stuff that you keep," said one neighbor, Malinda Carter, who noted she "rarely" saw the Kilpatricks and had no idea why they left or where they went.

July has been a tough month for Carlita Kilpatrick. One week before she moved out of her house, she lost her $41,200 job working for the city of Duncanville, Texas, because, city officials said, she didn't meet the job's requirements.

Carlita Kilpatrick, who is now raising three sons on her own after Kwame Kilpatrick's public corruption conviction, was hired in January as a specialist at the Duncanville Fieldhouse, an athletic facility with basketball courts, a fitness center and meeting rooms. Her duties included organizing and scheduling sporting events, such as basketball and volleyball tournaments, and overseeing the facility's daily operations.

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Claudia Garibay, Duncanville's public information officer, said Carlita Kilpatrick was on a 180-day probation period and did not meet the requirements of the job. She did not elaborate, beyond confirming that Kilpatrick's job officially ended July 10.

Carlita Kilpatrick got the job while her husband was on trial in Detroit federal court, where a jury in March convicted him and his longtime friend, Bobby Ferguson, on 34 counts combined. Both men face up to 20 years, maybe more, in prison for crimes including bribery and extortion.

Carlita Kilpatrick, who has never been charged with any crimes, could not be reached for comment. Her mother-in-law, former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, could not be reached for comment.

Mike Paul, a former spokesman for the Kilpatrick family, said he believes Carlita Kilpatrick and her children deserve privacy and peace, and urged the public and faith-community to pray for their well-being.

"Let them move on," Paul said in a phone interview from his New York office. "For anyone who has a heart: Look, Kwame is in prison. Let this family have some peace."

During Kilpatrick's tenure as mayor, Carlita Kilpatrick made headlines over the infamous Lincoln Navigator scandal, in which text messages revealed that taxpayers paid for two luxury SUVs for the former first lady, who was persistent in getting them.

The family moved into the 5,016-square-foot home nearly two years ago. The home was bigger than the Manoogian mansion — the official residence of Detroit's mayor, and an upgrade from the Texas home the Kilpatricks had previously lived in. The move to the larger home drew the ire of parole officials, who raised Kilpatrick's restitution last year from $125 a month to $500 a month after concluding he could afford to pay more.

Kilpatrick, for example, had been paying more than $314 a month for cable — more than double his restitution payment — and $800 a month for a car.

Kilpatrick still owes more than $800,000 in restitution to the city of Detroit for lying about an affair and ruining the careers of three police officers in whistle-blower lawsuit that cost the city of Detroit $8.4 million. The lies were revealed in text messages, published by the Detroit Free Press, eventually leading to criminal charges and his downfall. At $500 a month, it will take him more than 140 years to pay it off.